The invention is related to systems and methods for enhancing customer engagement. In part, this is accomplished by sending messages to users. The messages could be mobile or browser-based push notifications, text (SMS/MMS) messages, email messages, in-application messages, or an audio recording that is sent to users via a telephony system. The present invention is focused on delivering in-application messages to users.
Companies also often engage a customer engagement service to help manage the delivery messages to their customers. The customer engagement service can help control the flow and timing of messages to provide the customers with an enjoyable and informative experience. For example, some customers that are highly engaged with a company may wish to receive messages from the company on a frequent basis. Conversely, customers that are not highly engaged with the company may find frequent messages from the company undesirable. The customer engagement service can help determine what individual customers desire, and then manage the flow of messaging to customers based on their individual desires.
Similarly, some customers may welcome the delivery of messages via push notifications, whereas other customers find push notifications intrusive and undesirable. The customer engagement service can help determine the individual customers' preferences for how they wish to receive messaging, and then ensure that the customers receive messages according to their delivery channel preferences.
The customer engagement service can also cause messages to be delivered to customers at opportune times when the messaging may have the most influence over customer behavior. Similarly, the customer engagement service may know when certain types of message will have the greatest value to customers, and then seek to deliver the messages at those times.
Companies often provide a software application to their customers that the customers install on a computing device such as a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet or a smartphone. The software applications can provide a wide array of functionality or information to customers depending on what types of goods and services the company provides to its customers. For example, an online retailer may provide its customers with a software application that makes it easy for customers to make online purchases. A media company may provide its customers with a software application that makes it easy for the customers to access and watch media content.
Regardless of the type of software application that a company provides to its customers, it is often possible to deliver messages to the customers via the software application while they are using the company's software application. Such messages are referred to as in-application or “in-app” messages.
A customer engagement service hired by a company can control the flow and timing of the delivery of in-app messages. Indeed, the customer engagement service may deliberately coordinate the in-app messages with the delivery of messages sent to the customers via alternate delivery channels to help improve the customers' overall experience.
The in-app messages that are delivered to a customer may be personalized in various fashions based on known customer characteristics, customer preferences, demographic data, and perhaps location data.